When the technocratic government led by Prime Minister Mario Monti took over from Silvio Berlusconi's discredited right-of-centre administration in November 2011, Italy was on the brink of economic and financial collapse.

If the situation in the eurozone deteriorates further as the Italian general election gets nearer, there is a high risk of severe financial market turmoil that could push Italy back to that brink of financial and economic collapse where it found itself last November.